A Clinical Lead GP has finally been appointed to Bannview Medical Practice a year after the Southern Health Trust took over the surgery.

Since the last GP left last year, the surgery in Portadown has been mainly manned by locum doctors.

The Practice, currently under the management of the Southern Health Trust, will soon be staffed with one full time and one part time GP plus locum doctors.

These members of staff will be under the management of the Southern Trust, unlike most GP surgeries in NI.

In a statement, they said: “The Southern Trust temporarily took over management responsibility for Bannview Medical Practice, Portadown in January 2017 and this arrangement is still in-place.

“The Trust has recently appointed a Clinical Lead GP who will take up their post in early February.

“There is also one GP employed part time by The Trust at the Practice.

“The Trust is currently in the process of recruiting GPs to cover further sessions.

“In the interim, the Practice will continue to be covered by GP locums,” said a Trust spokesperson.

It is understood the Trust is still actively trying to recruit more GPs for the surgery.

Patient Tony Hendron said: “This time last year it looked like the practice was about to close, dumping around 5000 patients onto the other surgeries at Portadown Health Centre which would probably have caused a collapse of services. Following a campaign and protest led by myself, the Health Board was forced to take over the practice. The service has been running successfully for the past year with regular locums.”